In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, we, the inventors, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. We also grow a smaller number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits, usually to capture recessive traits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of peach tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘Pearl Princess XIII’.
The present variety was hybridized by us in 2004 as a first generation cross using ‘Diamond Princess’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,066) peach as the selected seed parent and an unnamed white flesh peach (unpatented) as the selected pollen parent. The fruit of this cross was gathered that summer, and the seeds were removed, cracked, stratified, germinated, and grown as seedlings on their own root in our greenhouse. Upon reaching dormancy the seedlings were transplanted as a group to a cultivated area of our experimental orchard located near Le Grand, Calif., in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). During the fruit evaluation season of 2008 we selected the present variety as a single tree from the group of seedlings described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of peach tree, we asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproductions were true to the original tree in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Nemaguard’ (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is similar to its seed parent, ‘Diamond Princess’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,066) peach by having a vigorous tree, by being self-fertile, by having showy blossoms that bloom in the late season, and by producing freestone peaches that are firm and mostly red in skin color, but is quite distinguished therefrom by having globose instead of reniform leaf glands and by producing fruit that is white instead of yellow in flesh color and that mature about sixty days later.
The present variety is most similar to ‘Glacier Princess’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 23,867) peach by being self-fertile and productive, by having showy flowers, and by producing peaches that are freestone in type, mostly red in skin color, white in flesh color, large in size, firm in texture, and good in flavor, but is distinguished by having a larger and more vigorous tree, by having globose instead of reniform leaf glands, by blooming about fourteen days later, by requiring more chilling hours, and by producing fruit that is lower in acid and that matures about eight days earlier.
The present variety is similar to its pollen parent (unnamed and unpatented) by being self-fertile and productive, by having showy flowers, and by producing peaches that are freestone in type, mostly red in skin color, white in flesh color, and good in flavor, but is distinguished by producing fruit that is larger in size, that is firmer in texture, and that matures about 20 days earlier.